News: Citrix Releases Edgesight for Load Testing 3.5

Citrix Edgesight for Load Testing has been quietly updated to version 3.5 with very little razzle or dazzle.

Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing is an automated load and performance testing solution for Citrix Presentation Server environments. As of XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack 1, the Load Testing service is no longer a separate licensed product and is now a free component in XenApp. While we’ll gloss over the pique that customers who bought the licenses just before this was announced, it doesn’t detract from the fact that Citrix Edgesight for Load Testing is an incredibly useful tool for supporting and sizing even a small farm and is, arguably, a credible differentiator for using ICA over RDP.

Edgesight for Load Testing allows you to predict how systems will cope with high levels of user load, or indeed, if a service isn’t operating as quickly as it should be. By simulating the actions of Citrix users – from 10s to 100s – and monitoring the responsiveness of the system under load, the service allows an administrator to determine how the current configuration and hardware infrastructure will support, or does support, demand.

Edgesight for Load Testing has a recording and scripting environment that is flexible and intuiative. Importantly, it uses the ICA channel itself to drive the session information; meaning that the farm servers don’t need configuation changes or additional software installed in order to run or record the tests.

With version 3.5 you now have the ability to record new metrics allowing increased reporting on the XenApp Server – but also if your XenApp Server is running on a XenServer, you can record metrics of the host server as well.

3.5 also gives intelligent load control, allowing you to roll up to a “maximum” or “break point” and then back off from that situation. This means that rather than run up to X Users, you can set break points at given server metrisc – allowing you to determine if its the CPU/Disk/Memory that is the bottleneck rather than a straight user count.

For a video demonstrating the latest features, visit the Citrix site.

These features, combined with the ability to launch sessions directly through ICA, to quickly develop test scripts by recording user sessions without scripting, and even launch sessions via the web interface further enhances a product that gives the functionality of traditional enterprise scripting tools. All without the price tag associated with deploying XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack 1.

Share this Article:

Andrew is a Director of Gilwood CS Ltd, based in the North East of England, which specialises in delivering and optimising server and application virtualisation solutions. With 12 years of experience in developing architectures that deliver server based computing implementations from small-medium size business to global enterprise solutions, his role involves examining emerging technology trends, vendor strategies, development and integration issues, and management best practices.